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An LLM-Powered PCB Schematic Checker (Major Update)

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Traceformer.io is a web application that ingests KiCad projects or Altium netlists along with relevant datasheets, enabling LLM-based schematic review. The system is designed to identify datasheet-driven schematic issues that traditional ERC tools can't detect.Since our first launch (formerly as Netlist.io), we've made some big changes:- Full KiCad project parsing via an open-source plugin- Pass-through API pricing with a small platform fee- Automatic datasheet retrieval- ERC/DRC-style review UI- Revamped review workflow with selectable frontier models (GPT 5.2, Opus 4.5, and more)- Configurable review parameters (token limits, design rules, and parallel reviews)Additionally, we continue to offer a free plan which lets you evaluate a design before subscribing. We're looking forward to hearing your feedback!

HN · launched Jan 4, 2026 · 55 upvotes (top 18%) · 4 views

Niche: ai computer-aided design software · 100 launches, 13 in the last 7 days ▲ +18% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags
  • Horizontal
  • Dev tools
  • Developer
  • AI-native
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

More like this: all 100 launches in ai computer-aided design software →

Could you build this?

Partial While UI and standard LLM prompting are straightforward, reliably parsing diverse electronic component datasheets (tables, pinouts, electrical characteristics) and mapping them to Altium/KiCad netlists is a complex document extraction challenge.

What it would actually take: The backend needs robust ECAD parsers for KiCad schematic formats and Altium netlists, linked with a multimodal document ingestion pipeline specifically tuned for complex electronics datasheets (tables, graphs, pinout diagrams). A high-precision verification engine must cross-reference net connectivity against electrical constraints (voltages, pull-ups, pin functions) with grounded citations. This requires domain expertise in hardware/PCB engineering combined with specialized layout and table-extraction parsing pipelines.

Discussion

20 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: Gemini (for netlist validation), KiCad, Altium, Cadence OrCAD/System Capture, LTSpice

Concerns raised: Datasheet token limits restrict larger designs (40 datasheet cap), Data security risk for enterprise customers sending designs to cloud, LLMs unreliable at detecting schematic problems without large training datasets, Poor schematic generation quality (not just checking), Limited to KiCad; most large organizations use Cadence or Altium

Feature requests: Support for Cadence OrCAD/System Capture format, Local/on-premise deployment option with locally-hosted LLMs, Schematic generation, not just validation, Layout validation and common layout concern checking, Higher datasheet limits for enterprise (enterprise tier pricing)

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 33 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #8 of 34 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 67 days after the earliest competitor.

Related data

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